Hi all -- I just picked up a Panasonic LX-K750 (manufactured October 1994) from a thrift shop as a secondary machine. Information on it is very sparse online, and I can't for the life of me figure out what this "CDG" port is for. I looked through all of LDDB's Panasonic manuals, but none of those models have this feature. Web search was futile, too. It would make sense if this has something to do with CD+G (CD Graphics) since it has karaoke features, but why would that need a separate port on the back? And in a form factor I've never seen before?

Any ideas? I'm stumped!

There are CD players with external CD+G decoders. I’ve never seen one though so I don’t know what the interface looks like.

Quick question. What does "Attenuator" do

"Attenuate"

Julien

I assume it’s a pad for the mics (makes them slightly quieter).

It seems strange that they'd support something like that when the LD player plays CDs, too. (CDDA, at least. I don't have any CD+G discs to test and verify with, but one would assume so in a karaoke-focused machine like this one...) But it _was_ the '90s, after all, and coming up with new ports for everything was kinda THE thing to do. Could have been something proprietary, perhaps.

According to the manual for a similar model, it's supposed to be turned on when using the TV's speakers for karaoke. It doesn't say why, though.

To prevent feedback, I’d guess.

Karaoke and CD+G are not the same thing. The massive wave of LaserKaraoke is all just normal LDs for the most part. For the early 90s there were way more more Laser karaoke titles than CD+G. CD+G wasn’t really marketed for karaoke much at all until late in LD’s life and then a repurposed CD+G exploded because it’s cheap as hell to make.

It may very well not play CD+Gs. My 604 doesn’t, which is basically a home dual purpose oke machine.

The reason is because the human voice can be very powerful and will blow speakers unless something like an attenuator is added in to filter out the highs.

If you set-up this LD player with an AV Receiver or amp and use PA speakers, you can keep the attenuator function off. Also, when not using the LD player for Karaoke, also keep the attenuator off since it just sounds less dynamic with it on.

As for the CDG port, this is an interface on your player to just add an external adapter that will give it CD+G capability if you have discs for it (Denon’s LA-3500 which is essentially a Panasonic, LX-900 has CD+G built in). CD+G was a cheaper option than the use of LaserDisc Karaoke software since there were only still images with subtitles instead of full motion video that required a production company to simply make a video. CD+G never really caught on except for the Karaoke market but there were a few CD albums that did incorporate it like Information Society’s debut album.

Awesome, I love how much I learn from this forum. Thanks everyone!